Memory Key Terms Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is coding?
It is the format which information is stored in the various memory stores.
What is capacity?
It is the amount of information that can be held in a memory store.
What is duration?
The length of time information can be held in memory.
What is Short-Term Memory?
It is a limited capacity memory store.
Coding is mainly acoustic (sound).
Capacity is between 5 - 9 items.
Duration is between 18 - 30 seconds.
What is Long-Term Memory?
It is the permanent memory store.
Coding is mainly semantic (has meaning).
It has unlimited capacity.
Can store memories for up to a lifetime.
What is the Multi-Store Model of Memory?
It is a representation of how memory works in terms of three stores:
- Sensory Register.
- Short-Term Memory.
- Long-Term Memory.
It describes how information is transferred from one store to another and how it is forgotten or remembered.
What is the Sensory Register?
It is the memory store for each of our five senses.
- Vision (iconic store).
- Hearing (echoic store).
Coding in iconic sensory register is visual and coding in echoic sensory register is acoustic.
The capacity of each register is very large.
The duration of each register is very short (less than half a second).
What is episodic memory?
It is a LTM store for personal events.
Includes memories of when the events occurred, people, objects, places and behaviours involved in that event.
Memories from this store are retrieved consciously.
What is semantic memory?
It is a LTM store for our knowledge of the world.
Includes facts and knowledge of what words and concepts mean.
These memories need to be recalled consciously.
What is procedural memory?
It is a LTM store for our knowledge of how to do things.
Includes our memories of learned skills.
We do not recall these memories consciously or deliberately.
What is the working memory model?
It is a representation of STM.
It suggests that STM is a processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinates by the central executive.
What is the central executive?
It is a component of the WMM that coordinates the activities of be three subsystems in memory.
It allocates processing resources to those systems.
What is the phonological loop?
It is a component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound.
This includes written and spoken material.
It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process.
What is the Visio-Spatial Sketchpad?
It is a component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space (called the inner eye).
What is the episodic buffer?
It is a component of the WMM that brings material from other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands.
It also provides a bridge between working memory and LTM.
What is interference?
It is forgetting because one memory blocks another.
This may cause one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten.
What is proactive interference?
It is when forgetting occurs due to older memories disrupting the recall of newer memories.
The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
What is retroactive interference?
It is when forgetting occurs due to newer memories disrupting the recall of older memories.
The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.
What is retrieval failure?
It is a form of forgetting.
It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory.
The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided.
What is a cue?
It is a trigger of information that allows us to access a memory.
Cues may be meaningful or indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning.
Cues may be external - environmental context.
Cues may be internal - mood or degree of drunkenness.
What is an Eyewitness Testimony?
It is the ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents or crimes, which they have seen.
Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions or anxiety.
what is misleading information?
It is incorrect information given to the eyewitness after the event.
It could be due to a leading question or post event discussion between other witnesses of the same event.
What is a Leading Question?
It is a question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.
What is post event discussion?
It occurs when there is more than one witness to an event.
Witnesses may discuss what they have seen to other people.
Influencing the accuracy of each witnesses recall of the event.
